Be Part of Fredericton’s Digital Revolution

Mara

2017-08-01

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As the economic development arm of the City of Fredericton, Ignite Fredericton continues to tout Fredericton’s well-deserved reputation as one of Canada’s most innovative municipalities. It’s a narrative that has attracted new businesses, investment and talent from across the globe.

From its adoption of ISO and Lean-Six Sigma for service and process improvement to its award-winning initiatives in community broadband and communications, Fredericton has consistently punched above its weight as a ‘smart city’. But what is next for Fredericton?

The City of Fredericton has a vision to be a ‘Digital City’, which will see the modernization of government operations and service delivery to citizens. This will be the next leg of the journey to position Fredericton as the leading, innovative municipality in Canada.

This effort of modernizing government operations and service delivery falls into three main categories of business improvement through technology innovation, with the first step focusing on core processes and systems, followed by a focus on e-Government and then incorporating work in the field of innovation and connectivity. If you have a solution, idea or digital process that will streamline any of the following areas, the City wants to hear from you!

Core Systems - This will transform the way City staff work internally with new systems and IT infrastructures. It will enable standardized and efficient processes in order to respond to the rapid pace of technological change and citizen expectations. Core systems encompass:

Customer Request and Relationship Management - Service Request Initiation, Assignment and Tracking, Service Request History and Trends; Customer Knowledge Base.

E-Government - This will enable people to better connect, engage, and interact with the City in the same way they do in other aspects of their daily lives – as consumers, socially and in the community. E-government encompasses:

Online Services

Digital ID

Integrated Social media

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Connected Community - This will create a connected community by making data easily accessible, enabling online collaboration and participation from the public, and allowing for greater openness and transparency. A connected community encompasses:

IOT (Internet of Things) Integration

Open Government

Community Collaboration and Participation

As part of the community’s vision to be the ‘Startup Capital of Canada’ (Vision 2020 Economic Development Strategy), the City has already taken some very progressive steps as early adopters of technology, which has seen the digitization, pay-by-phone parking through HotSpot; monitoring the condition of the pavement through TotalPave; and piloting technology with ReadyPass to provide real-time transit route information.

Digital Fredericton will take us to the next level by digitizing and connecting things like water metres eliminating the physical residential visit to read them. It will provide real-time response and information if a motorist reports a large hole in the road, where City staff can be immediately dispatched and the public proactively notified for traffic re-routing. It could provide value-added service of planned snow removal and garbage collection with real-time updates. Perhaps someday, we could even see e-voting from our smart phones. These are just some examples of what a ‘Digital Fredericton’ could be.

If you feel that you or your organization can play a role in all or part of establishing Fredericton as the most innovative municipality in Canada, we want to hear from you. Please specify how you can contribute: partnerships, services, products, benefits, strengths, limitations, experience, pricing/cost estimates and any other information that you think may help in positioning Fredericton as a Digital City leader, providing exceptional services to its employees and residents for years to come!